


line without a hook

by el_amar



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Bisexual Pete Conlan, Discussions of Gender Identity, He/Him and They/Them Pronouns for Cody Walsh, Other, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Freeform, tiny mention of homophobia, what even are relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-19 00:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29742513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/el_amar/pseuds/el_amar
Summary: “Do you want me to go, or stay, or something?” Cody asked hesitantly.“You can stay, or not. I mean, shit, what do you want, Cody?”This fic features a whole identity crisis, the phrase “toxic masculinity gender shit”, and a hopeful outlook into the future?
Relationships: Pete Conlan | Pete the Plug/Cody Walsh
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	line without a hook

**Author's Note:**

> listen, I love these characters in the show, but I'm also very into fanon's interpretation of them.  
> title from the ricky montgomery song.

Cody stood in the section of the video games store that offered old used games. It was a small independent store near the mall. He had to find something good here. His fingers hovered aimlessly over the big box of discounted used games. He had a specific vibe in mind, something chaotic and fun, but he didn’t know what to look for. Iga had said something to Sofia once during an impromptu reading where she had let Sofie draw a card. She had said that you needed to let your hand and intuition guide you. He felt a little silly, but he closed his eyes and felt along the spines of the video games. He stopped abruptly and opened his eyes. His hand had landed on a game that felt right somehow. He pulled it out of the box and immediately knew it would be perfect. It was pretty cheap, for the gem Cody knew it was, but he wasn’t complaining. He took it home and waited for Pete to come back from work. Not that he would have told anyone he was waiting. Not that he had Pete’s work schedule pretty much memorised at this point. He put on an episode of Naruto and tried to relax. Finally, he heard the front door creak open and the rustling of plastic bags in the hallway.  
“Hey Cody!”, Pete called as he came into the living room.  
“Oh, hey Pete!” Cody tried to sound casual, surprised even.  
“Gonna go make tea.” He made finger guns at Cody and moved away.  
“Uuh, I found another one!” Cody burst out. Fuck.  
“Hmm?” Pete came back into the room.  
“Uh, I found another like obscure game.”  
Confusion lifted from Pete’s face and he smiled. “Ooh, cool, can I see?”  
Cody handed over the game and Pete’s face lit up. “Holy shit dude, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? This looks weird as hell, I love it!”  
Cody bit back a full-on smile as he felt himself blush. “Do you want to check it out, or whatever?” He looked away from Pete and at his chipped midnight blue nail polish.  
“Hell yeah!”  
Pete left to make tea and when he returned, they settled in to explore the strange world that was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games franchise. This had become their thing. Cody would dig up old video games, the weirder and more obscure the better, and Pete would play with him. It had started when Pete was having a bad night. Not terrible, but one of those nights were nothing had seemed to go right, which he had complained about to Cody, slumping down on the couch next to them. Cody had listened while playing through one of their favourite games Eventually, Pete had gotten so entranced by the 8-bit game on the screen that he had forgotten his strange mood and had instead focussed on the story of the game. By the end he had been cursing whenever Cody got hit and cheering them on when they were fighting a difficult boss. It gave Cody such a rush of emotion that they felt dizzy, and they had chased that high ever since.  
The Ninja Turtles game was weird as hell. It also left a lot to be desired in terms of storytelling, meaning that Cody and Pete started making up stories for the bosses and the NPCs. They played late into the night, until Nasir came down into the kitchen to get some water and squinted at them with bleary eyes asking what the hell they were doing at such an ungodly hour, before heading back to his room.  
Pete whistled. “Guess it’s time to call it a night.”  
“Guess so,” Cody mumbled. He had gotten super sleepy an hour ago despite all the Monster in his system, but hadn’t wanted to end the night.  
They turned off the console and headed for their rooms. At the stairs they both paused.  
“Goodnight, I guess,” Cody suppressed a yawn.  
“Yeah, goodnight!” Pete grinned. “Hey, do you think we’ll beat the evil boss guy eventually?”  
“That guy? For sure. He’s got nothing on our moves. We almost had him at the end.”  
“Yeah, that’s true.” Pete nodded.  
Cody nodded back.  
“Yeah…” Pete trailed off.  
“Are you working tomorrow?” Cody asked.  
“Yeah, only till like two though, because there’s an event after that, why?”  
Cody shrugged.  
“You want to come by? You still haven’t seen the shop!” Pete punched his arm lightly, very lightly, which is to say he formed a fist with his hand and brushed it against Cody’s arm. Cody tried not to shiver.  
“Yeah, sure, fuck, why not?” Cody had never visited Uncommon Knowledge because he didn’t want to seem desperate, like he cared or something. At the same time, he wanted Pete to know how much he cared, how he cared so, so much. But that was dangerous and also embarrassing as fuck.  
“Cool, then I guess I’ll see you there tomorrow,” Pete smiled. “Or, I don’t know, I guess I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast first. Unless you have plans in the morning, I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Anyway, I will see. You. At some point. Tomorrow.” He nodded to himself and smiled. “Cool.”  
“Cool,” Cody repeated.  
“Goodnight!” Pete waved and made his way up the stairs to his room.  
Fuck. 

The next day Cody actually missed Pete having breakfast, because he slept in late. He then spent a truly embarrassing amount of time picking out an outfit that would look effortless, but nothing fit right, everything felt too tight, or too loose and just sat weird on his body. It was extremely frustrating, so in the end he settled for wearing his usual duster and painting his nails a fresh coat of black.  
Uncommon Knowledge was easy to find, considering Cody had walked past it a few times, just to check it out. There was some cool art drawn in chalk on the shop’s window and as he peered through, he could see Pete at the register looking at a laptop on the counter. Cody took a deep breath (fuck) and opened the door. The bell chimed and Pete looked up.  
“Oh, hey Cody!” His smile made Cody’s chest feel all weird, was the same wooshy feeling he had gotten when Bazathrax got turned into a tattoo on his chest.  
“Hey, uh, this place looks pretty sick.”  
“Yeah, can I give you a tour?”  
Cody nodded and Pete began showing them the different sections of the shop. When they got to a shelf titled “MAGIC” Cody frowned and Pete snorted. “Yeah, no it’s mostly Tarot stuff, and astrology, nothing of the sort of thing we do,” he grinned. We. Cody was part of something. It’s not like he hadn’t known that, but hearing Pete say it felt weirdly good. He zoned back into the conversations. “-anything wrong with that, I know it can help people, and there is some truth to it, it’s just, yeah, you get it.”  
“Yeah, it’s not the insane cool stuff you do,” Cody said and while the lighting wasn’t great in here, he could have sworn Pete was blushing a little.  
They moved on to the queer graphic novel section and Pete pointed out his favourites. Cody ran his fingers across the spines, he found it hard to shop without touching everything, when Pete caught his hand in his. Cody’s breath caught, throat felt tight, and he expected to be told off, like he hadn’t been since he was younger, but Pete turned his hand in his and smiled. “You painted your nails a different colour!”  
“What?” Cody said kind of breathlessly.  
“Your nails, they’re…” Pete frowned and let go of Cody’s hand. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have. Are you okay?”  
“Yeah, whatever, I’m fine. I just…” Cody stared intently at the floor. “For some reason I thought you were gonna yell at me, or something. For touching the books.” Fuck. Why did he have to say it out loud?  
“Shit, Cody, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think that through.”  
“No, it’s okay, like, fuck, how would you know I would like. Yeah, it’s whatever,” Cody felt so bad. Pete was always doing this, touching Cody casually, and it was one of their favourite things. Now they had made him feel bad about touching them and he would stop and that would suck, all because Cody couldn’t have his shit together. Fuck.  
“Hey, Cody, I’m really sorry. I always want you to feel safe around me. I won’t do something like that again.”  
Cody looked up at that. Pete looked super guilty and Cody felt even worse. They shook their head but struggled to find the words.  
“No?” Pete asked. “No to what?”  
“No to not doing something like that again,” Cody finally said.  
“What do you mean?”  
“It’s…I can’t explain. It’s, whatever, forget it, dude.” He turned back to the books and felt heat rising to his face. This was so frustrating, why couldn’t he just…  
“Hey man, talk to me. I need to know what to do, so I don’t hurt you.”  
“It’s just.” Cody risked a glance at Pete whose brows were furrowed with concern. Shit. “This is really hard for me to say, but you’re always touching me randomly and it’s nice, even if it startles me sometimes.” Cody took a moment to breathe. Pete was quiet and when Cody looked at him again, he nodded encouragingly. “But I don’t like mind you touching me, or anything, I mean. Fuck. It’s really nice, and I don’t want you to stop.” Fuck, that was so much. Fuck. That sounded like Cody was like into Pete or something. Fuck.  
Pete hummed pensively. “Dude, thanks for telling this. Do you think it would help if I asked first before touching you?”  
Cody nodded, a little too eagerly for their own taste, but they had a hard time getting a word out.  
“Chill, okay, cool. Man, I’m really sorry I didn’t think to do that sooner! That was not cool. Is there anything else I should know about?” He rubbed his chin the way he always did when he felt uncomfortable or unsure.  
Cody shook his head. “I think that’s it right now?”  
“Alright. Uh, how about I make us some tea. Or do you want to leave. That’s cool too.”  
“Tea is good.”  
Pete smiled.  
They moved to the staff kitchen and Pete put the kettle on, before listing all the teas they had. There weren’t as many as Pete kept in his room, but it was still an overwhelming amount.  
“So, what kind of event is happening here later?” Cody asked after a while.  
“I think Zee is doing a workshop with some kids from a youth centre.”  
“Cool. So you’re done here, soon right? Do you want to like, I don’t know, do something after?”  
Pete smiled. “Yeah, for sure! Is it bad that I kind of want to try to finish the turtle game?”  
“Dude, we have to beat that guy. We can’t let him win.” Cody banged their fist on the table, which earned them a look that was…fond? It was hard to tell. The bell at the door rang and Pete went back out into the shop. They passed the rest of Pete’s shift like that. Hanging out in the kitchen drinking tea, Cody leafing through some graphic novels while Pete dealt with customers. When it was time to go, Zee came and took over.  
“Hi, you must be Cody!” They waved.  
“Uh, yeah, you’re Zee, right? Nice, to uh, meet you,” he mumbled.  
They beamed. “Pete has told me all about you!” Cody’s stomach flipped. He expected them to elaborate, but that was all they said, before turning to Pete and discussing shop things with him. Cody resisted the urge to hide behind his hair.  
On their way home they stopped to get some takeout. As they were nearing their house, Pete got quiet and after a while he cleared his throat. “Hey. Is it cool if I hold your hand?”  
Cody’s stomach dropped. Yes, please. “Yeah, whatever.”  
“Sweet,” Pete smiled and laced their hands together. Cody tried desperately to relax, but he honestly couldn’t remember the last time he’d held hands with someone. Pete was a friend, but none of Cody’s other friends ever did that either. He looked down at their hands and it was a truly dizzying sight. Pete swung their hands back and forth a little before giving Cody’s hand a squeeze and talking about their video game again.  
Back home they were disappointed to find Nasir and some of his friends hogging the TV. They offered Pete and Cody that they could join and watch a movie with them, but Pete politely declined.  
“Wanna come up to my room and hang out? We still have takeout.” Pete asked when they reached the stairs. Cody nodded and they made their way up to Pete’s room. Cody hadn’t been here very often, they usually hung out in the living room. It was obvious Pete had moved in relatively recently, and he didn’t seem to have a ton of stuff, but the room seemed cosy, warm. The sun shone brightly through the window, making Pete’s hair colour look like sweet caramel. Cody looked around for a place to sit, but the only chair in the room was covered in a pile of clothes. He looked to the unmade bed and back at Pete who gestured for Cody to have a seat. They got out their food and put on a movie on Pete’s laptop. It was a foreign film about two soccer players who were in a secret relationship, but who couldn’t come out because of homophobia in sports. It started out okay, but quickly became pretty depressing, as the guys in the movie started to be more and more affected by peer pressure. By the end Cody felt kind of down and when he looked over at Pete, they found him chewing on his lower lip, a sad look on his face.  
“You okay?” Cody asked after a moment, their voice raspy from not speaking for a while.  
“Yeah, I’m fine, I think. Just thinking.” He paused and Cody waited. “All of this toxic masculinity bullshit…makes me think of myself when I was younger. Shit, it’s still something I’m dealing with.” He paused. “Can I be honest for a sec? Meeting you kind of brought out that part of me again. That’s no one’s fault, but it’s a thing. And it got better the more I got to know you, of course, but it’s weird how that kind of resurfaced when we met.”  
“That fucking sucks, I’m sorry,” Cody mumbled, unsure how to respond.  
“It’s like fine, man, I’m over it. I think it happened, because you were this new person in our group who’s like really cool and edgy, and super comfortable with their gender identity? And I guess I felt, I don’t know, threatened is the wrong word, but like yeah. I felt like I had to be extra masc and stuff.”  
“I’m not that edgy. But yeah, I get what you mean.”  
“Alright, Night Angel.”  
Cody blushed. “Hey,” he admonished weakly. His brain was only now catching up to the part where Pete had said he thought Cody was cool.  
“Anyway,” Pete sighed and flopped down on the bed, pulling his knees up to his chest and then rolling over to face Cody.  
“Anyway,” Cody repeated and in a moment of absolute madness let himself sink down onto the mattress next to Pete, fixing his gaze on the ceiling. He thought he could feel Pete looking at him and instantly regretted lying down. What if that had been his cue to leave. Fuck. He was about to get up when Pete spoke up.  
“This movie exhausted me, to be honest. But I’m too sad to take a nap.”  
Okay, but was this his cue to leave or to stay? Fuck.  
“Do you want me to go, or stay, or something?” Cody asked hesitantly.  
“You can stay, or not. I mean, shit, what do you want, Cody?”  
Cody felt heat rising to his face, but he thought Pete’s question over for a moment. What did he want? Finally, he said “I don’t know how much is okay to want.” He turned his head to look at Pete, who blinked, a surprised look crossing his face.  
“Try me,” he said finally, voice soft, words heavy.  
Cody gathered his thoughts in his mind, before speaking. “I want to fall asleep next to you. Even if, fuck, even if it’s just this once.”  
Pete’s face was as earnest as Cody had ever seen it. It made sense, as this was the most earnest Cody had been in front of Pete, or in general in a long time. Pete nodded and his expression softened. “That sounds nice.” They regarded each other for a moment longer. Cody let his eyes roam over Pete’s freckled cheeks, his brown eyes, the thin moustache. He let Pete look at him in return, didn’t duck his head or shake his hair into his face. Resisted the urge to curse and turn away.  
“Do you want to go get some sleep clothes?” Pete asked after a while.  
Cody nodded and made his way downstairs. It felt like he was in a trance, not really processing what had just happened. It only really hit him when he was walking back up the stairs in some old black and purple pyjamas that this was happening. It was really happening. Fuck. What if he talked in his sleep? Or if he snored? He didn’t think he snored, but who knew? Or shit, what if he did something to make Pete uncomfortable? Or what if Pete wanted something from him that he wasn’t comfortable with. No, Pete wouldn’t push him. Fuck. Okay. When he arrived at Pete’s room the door was open, and Pete had changed into an old white shirt and boxers.  
“Would you mind sleeping on the right side? I kinda prefer this side,” Pete asked and Cody could have sworn he sounded a little nervous.  
“Sure, I don’t mind,” Cody shrugged.  
Pete turned off the ceiling light, a bare light bulb that hung from a black cord and climbed into bed. The only light source now was the streetlight outside. Cody took a deep breath and climbed into bed next to Pete. They rolled onto their side to face him and could just make out his silhouette in the dark. Pete was lying on his back, but rolled over once Cody had settled in.  
“Good night, Night Angel,” Pete whispered, and Cody felt like his ribcage was too small to contain his heart.  
“Good night,” he whispered back.  
Cody rolled over to turn away from Pete, because he couldn’t stand being able to just look at him. This was good. Unnerving, but good. He had gotten what he had asked for and it was nice. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his heart. He could pretend to be alone and maybe he would be able to fall asleep more easily. But then what was the point of that. He was so acutely aware of Pete’s presence. It was both soothing and overwhelming. Fuck. He could do this, just go to sleep. An image flashed through his mind of Pete’s arms around Cody’s waist and he could almost imagine the feeling of Pete’s chest pressed against his back. He saw himself holding Pete’s hands as they rested on his stomach. He immediately felt guilty. Guilty for even thinking about this, guiltier still for wanting it. Oh, how he wanted it. His skin burned with how much he craved Pete’s closeness. His throat felt tight. Why couldn’t he just enjoy what he had now? Why did his stupid brain give him stupid ideas and why did he want them to be real so badly? He should just go to sleep and forget about it. Pete was probably asleep by now, fully unaware of Cody’s inner conflict. Fuck.  
Cody rolled over to lie on his back. These were the facts: Pete was always touching him. Today he had even asked to hold Cody’s hand. When Cody had asked how much he was allowed to want Pete had said “Try me.” These two words echoed in Cody’s head over and over until they no longer sounded like Pete. Fuck. That meant Cody could ask for more, right? What did it mean when a friend you were really close with acted like that? He rolled over again and got his phone from the nightstand. He opened his browser and got halfway through typing “is it normal for close friends to cuddle” when the mattress shifted and Pete quietly asked “Hey, are you okay?”  
Cody froze for a moment before furiously pressing the lock button on his phone.  
“Uh, yeah, sorry if that woke you.”  
“Dude, I can’t sleep anyway. It’s like I’m tired and I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, but still.”  
Cody put his phone away and rolled over to face Pete. His eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could make out the features of Pete’s face more clearly now.  
“Something wrong?” he asked.  
“Not really. I’m still just thinking about that movie. And like. My life and shit. Like how I know I’m bi, but I’ve never allowed myself to date anyone who wasn’t a cis woman. I just always thought that I couldn’t handle dating anyone else, because… because… fuck just because of some toxic masculinity gender shit. And then you showed up in my life and after some initial some stupid trying to impress you bullshit, I let my guard down.” He swallowed audibly. “We started hanging out and I just wanted to be close to you. First, I looked for excuses, but then you didn’t seem to mind, so I kept doing it and now we’re having this little sleepover and ahh,” he made a frustrated noise. “I don’t know what I’m doing Cody. I feel like I’m freshly out of the closet again and just. I don’t know what I’m doing.”  
Cody’s entire body felt incredibly tense, but at the same time a strange calm washed over them. “Dude, that sounds like a lot to handle, I get that you’re like overwhelmed, or something. And I can leave, if it’s too much. Like I get it. But if you want me to stay, we can like, fuckin’, talk about it or whatever.” Their own voice sounded alien to their ears.  
“I think it would be nice if you stayed. And we could, yeah, talk about it,” Pete said after a long pause.  
“Cool.”  
“I guess what I’m wondering is, how you feel?” Pete said, and his voice sounded heavy somehow.  
Cody felt himself flush. How the hell was he supposed to answer that? He had tried so valiantly not to think about it that he was at a loss for words for a moment. Finally, he said “I like spending time with you. Like a lot. And I think you’re the fucking coolest person I know. So. I like it when you hold my hand. I like being here, even though it makes me nervous as shit.”  
“Shit, Cody,” Pete pulled the blanket up to his nose. “But what does that mean? For us.” He sounded anxious.  
“If you want, we can just like keep doing this, right? Except no more fucking excuses for wanting to be closer. We can just be like, honest, or whatever.” Cody felt so much out of his depth, at this point he had no idea what was going to come out of his mouth next. Pete was nodding furiously though, so maybe Cody wasn’t spewing total nonsense.  
“Okay. Okay. So like a no label situation?” Pete asked, anxiety still in his voice.  
“Do you need a label?”  
“No, no! I mean. Kinda. I don’t know this is new for me. And… Can I have a hug?”  
“’ Course.” Cody moved closer until their legs were touching and pulled Pete against his chest. Pete immediately buried his face in Cody’s shoulder and sighed deeply.  
“My head was just going a mile a minute and I was losing sight of why we were even having this conversation,” he said after a while, words muffled by Cody’s shirt. Cody hummed and held Pete tighter. They stayed like this for a long while. Finally, Pete spoke up, he sounded close to sleep. “You know, this is so nice. I think maybe that’s the only thing matters.”  
“Yeah,” Cody whispered.  
“Goodnight, again, Cody.”  
“Goodnight, Pete.”  
As Cody was drifting off to sleep, he was aware that things weren’t perfect. This was not the last conversation of this kind they would have if he was lucky. It was a start. And holding Pete close felt so, so good. Something in his chest and in his brain shifted into place and he knew he was okay.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed me projecting onto both of these fools, let me know if you did <3  
> shoutout to my dear friend M. for giving me the idea for Cody and Pete playing super obscure video games  
> the movie that is referenced here actually exists, it's called Mario and it's german.   
> I'm on tumblr at twin-skeleton-vibes, come say hi


End file.
